Your future in digital marketing and other questions answered
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Howdy, all. Wanted to answer a few of your questions from last week below. Keep 'em coming!
- Graham
How does a company decide how much money it is going to allocate for online marketing and digital content?
It comes down to each company's specific financial situation and budget, really. There's no process that every business follows for this. Most companies look at their overall profit/loss for the year and what potential revenue/customers they might be able to bring in through marketing efforts to come up with this number. At the company where I work, we look at how a particular marketing effort has performed for us in the past to then figure out what the ROI will be in launching it again.
Is there any sort of community where new bloggers can post to gain more visibility from popular bloggers? Have you found other bloggers endorsing you to be a large part of generating a following?
You bet! Networking with other bloggers can be a great way to build a following. Each niche or interest has its own places where bloggers and other influencers congregate. In some instances, that's Twitter or Facebook. In other cases, bloggers and influencers meet at conferences or events. For example, the BlogHer network is a very powerful network of women in social media who also often meet for in-person events.
How do you convert a simple blog into a powerful brand ambassador and sales magnet for the business?
Make it interesting and useful for your customers/audience! David Meerman Scott has some powerful examples on this in his book. A blog won't be a powerful sales tool unless it really hooks your audience with creative, interesting posts that folks might want to share – building your brand's credibility and influence in the process.
In regards to creating a blog, are there "hot topics" that would be best to write about? In creating my own blog what would spark the most interest? What would be the next step after WordPress?
Writing about anything particularly current or in the news is a great way to find "hot topics." After all, so many news sources today just look for hot takes from blogs and social media to then excerpt (helping to spread your influence). Think also about topics that people care about and talk about, even if they're not in the news – or a topic you have a lot of expertise in that others don't. After setting up your blog with Wordpress, I'd advise to write, write, and write some more to develop your voice and concepts for future posts. Once you think you've gotten the hang of it, I'd start to publicize your blog more by talking it up on social media, engaging with other bloggers, and commenting on other sites.
Companies who are looking to really win the digital marketing game typically with hire someone who is a "digital strategist" to help them. In today's age, it seems like a majority of people who are tech-savvy and have an eye for business can become a pretty adept digital strategist. For someone who would like to really start looking into the field, what would you reccommend for them to learn first, and what processes must they know if they really want to win the "digital world"?
I know this class can sometimes be frustrating in not having an instructor in-person to ask questions to – but in a way, this is really useful for digital marketing. Tactics change so quickly week to week, with new tools always emerging. It's impossible to ever truly be "done" with learning this field. I think having a strong grasp of communications – whether offline or online – is the best first step to a successful career in this field. If you can't communicate well (whether through writing, graphic design/photography/videography, etc), it's going to be hard to make a go of it online. Second, really go deep on digital tools. Play around with them as much as you can. Experiment. Read what other people are doing online, and stay up on digital marketing news and information. Just like hard work drives success for MSU's basketball and football teams, so it does with digital marketing. Finally, don't be afraid to ask others for help or advice (including your instructors!)
Is owning/writing for a blog beneficial for future employers to see?
Absolutely! In fact, I got my first communications job with Gov. Granholm in large part due to a Michigan government and politics blog I kept up when I was at MSU (yeah, I was a nerd – but a nerd with a job before most of my friends!) ;-) Owning and writing for your own blog is a great way to show dedication, and to show off your digital media chops. Also, the longer you keep your blog up – and the more links you can drive to it – the better you can optimize your own name for search. Start your own website/blog today!
Comments & Feedback
What is a good number to start with for a budget when my company, ESPN, really has no boundaries on what they can spend for a "big idea."
Is the presentation about this class or our brands?
Since designing a digital strategy, I'm wondering how many companies actually change their strategies if they feel like they need a re-vamp. What's the best way to go about doing this? Since you can't really just just down the marketing department for a week to remodel. Should you make changes little by little, or have a team working on changing your digital strategy in a fast-paced, overnight, change everything all at once sort of way?
Does everyone have to do presentation for the final?
How can you enhance your blog in order to make it interesting enough for your target audience to become a powerful brand ambassador and sales magnet for the business?
How can you build the best digital strategy for your brand as well as find a budget that fits??
When it comes to social media marketing, is it the more social media platform the brand covers the better?
What are the most important metrics to look at to determine if a digital strategy is working?
When giving a proposal on a digital marketing strategy, such as the current assignmetn we are working on for class, is it appropriate to stick to the number of about 10 slides for the presentation, because less is more, or is it better to have more in-depth and longer presentations in the work-place is order to make the presentation thurough?
If I decide to write a blog to show samples of my writing, what topics would you suggest I write about? What would an advertising firm look at in regards to my writing style and content? Also, is curating content just as important as creating content when it comes to a blog?
What is the best way to showcase a brand new digital strategy? Does a powerpoint do the trick, or should there also be a paper alongside with other presentations. Concerning budget, how do companies come up with realistic budgets allocating every type of expenses and costs they have.
How much do you think is the right amount of budget that one campaign should spend? For example, my brand is Hermès, and how much do you think they should spend on a campaign?
What do you think the best way for us to think about the a budget for the brand?
For participation 11/17-11/23:
What is your personal favorite marketing campaign(s)? Perhaps in terms of ideas, or the way it was implemented? What made it stand out?
When implementing new digital ideas for a compnay would it be best to do a test run or just fomative evaluation such as surveys etc. ?
What should an organization consider when allocating a digital media marketing budget? What channels should recieve the most money?
What type of teams in a company work with creating marketing strategies vs implementing? What kind of specific positions names would they be?
What do you think is the smartest way to gain followers that are not your friends/family/friends-of-friends to a personal blog? At what point should you put money into your blog?
Are there really thousands of ways that you can create digital strategies, or is it just a certain amount of number of things that you can do. How far can you go when your trying to come up with the best idea. Arent there only so many ideas?
How can you build the best digital strategy for your company?
When trying to attract customers and followers, what is the best approach to take?
If our final presentation is only 10 slides maximum, which aspects from our digital strategy should be included and what is regarded as the most important information to include?
What do you mean by "big idea"? Is something as simple as defining the line between content and visuals considered a "big idea" or should it be our actual campaign? Also, what is the best way to deliver a digital strategy? Is it always a slides presentation?
Are we going to get our digital strategy grades and comments back before our final presentation is due?
Can you give any tips about creating a realistic budget?
What is the best way to present to a large company and how much information is necessary to not overwhelm or underwhelm?
What would you say are the most important techniques in creating a PowerPoint using "presentation zen tactics"?
When conducting an actual presentation to a company or to a board of directors in a company you work for, what is the most common way of presenting a complete digital strategy? Do you create a powerpoint and talk in front of them? Do you type up a 20 page report?
How is blogging really benefical for future employers? What if the content they see on your social media is vastly different from what they see on your blog? Is it better to send them a mock website of a "vision board", for an example? Or is it better to have your social media accounts private and just use your blog as an asset to your resume and cover letter?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBM2HVPFK0A
What is the best way to start thinking of a budget for a strategy?
What is the best strategy for developing a network that you can market to if majority of your business is focused around the older generation who is not on the internet?
How many creations of display ads are expected for the slideshow/keynote? (i.e. Example of banner facebook post, or display banner ad on a particular website)
for a generally large business, how much can you expect them to budget to spend on digital marketing?
What's the best way to find out how to track your brand's e-commerce efficacy (if they use third party retailers like Olay)?
How do you know how much you should use for your digital strategy budget?
When it comes to digital stratigies, is it okay to focus on one social media platform or is it more general for compaines to foucs on every social media channel?
When writing a blog for a company, should it be a single blog? Or should it be combined with your own personal blog? For example, you blog about recipes for food. But then you have a blog post saying, "Hey! This dish was all made with things from Meijer. This brand is the best for (something)." Just how can you make it obvious that you're advocating for a certain company without being annoying or super in-your-face about it?
What is a resonable amount of money to spend on a digital strategy?
how much budget should be? I mean it really depends on whether to advertise on online vs offline or both.
what are the key elements for a successful blog that can carry out your brand?
What are some signs that your digital marketing campaign is truly a successful one? What seperates a bad campaign from average and what seperates an average campaign from a great one?
Why are some budgets based on the competitors spedning on their marketing strategy?
how can i make a service company more appealing that company's that sell products?
Can we adjust is assignmrnt for final project? or we can't change at all?
What is the best way to create a budget for social media advertising?
Do you recommend any strategy to make good budget?
Harley-Davidson does not spend a lot of traditional marketing. They rely heavily on word-of-mouth and using social media platforms. Do you feel they would benefit from having a blog, as they currently do not have one?
What are the best ways to tell if your paid social media tactics are of value and worth the investment?
If your campaign isn’t necessarily expensive is that a negative or positive due to that fact that you didn’t incorporate more outside sources, even though you believed that a lot of in-house changes where more beneficial then out sourcing?
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Fox Sports has a target market that they do not know on a personal level. What is the best way to connect with the public or average reader without actually knowing them?